Yesterday I received my star spectroscope from Rainbow Optics (Hayward Ca. in the USA). I ordered it from Adirondack Video Astronomy . I have been looking for a spectroscope for some time, but most of them are too expensive. This one, the Rainbow Optics Spectroscope costs about 250 US dollars, a nice price for someone who wants to get his feet wet in amateur spectroscopy.

The grating cell (right), holding a blazed diffraction grating with 5600 grooves, can be screwed into the bottom of a 1.25 eyepiece. The lens cell (left), containing a lens, which magnifies the image of the spectrum, can be installed on the top of the eyepiece. With an 8-inch telescope I should be able to get some spectra from stars down to the 4th magnitude. It is also possible to photograph stellar spectra with the diffraction grating.

On Saturday the 24th of April I observed a 4-day-old Moon, especially the area around Mare Nectaris, Fracastorius and Theophilus and Piccolomini. A detailed report will be published in the Solar System section. Here are two images of the Moon taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4500 and the TAL 200K.

Last night around 21.00hrs I observed Mars, Venus and the crescent Moon, standing close together in the western sky. There was a lot of moisture in the air, and the light pollution......follow this link to read the full story

On April 11th 2004 I observed Melotte 111(Coma Star Cluster) and M 3 with the Skywindow and my 7x 50 Bresser and the Vixen 15 x 80 binoculars. The seeing was 7 or 8 (on a scale of 10, where 1 = best and 10 is worse).

Spring is a great time for observing galaxies, but you have to go to a dark sky site, to really find and enjoy them. There are however a few galaxies that can be seen from my light-polluted, suburban backyard. M 81 and M 82 in Ursa Major are..........follow this link to the deepsky section and read the full story.

Last Thursday night, together with a fellow astronomer, I have been observing some objects through three different telescopes, an 8-inch Vixen Newton telescope, an 8-inch TAL Klevtzov-Cassegrain and a 10-inch Skywatcher Newton. We compared some globular clusters (M 3, M 5 and M 13), some galaxies (M 81, M 82, M 51, M 64), some double stars (the Double Double in Lyra, Iota Cancri, Cor Caroli, the Alcor/Mizar system), Jupiter, M 44, and a planetary, M 57.

The seeing was bad, but that was the same for all three telescopes. We first compared the two 8-inch telescopes. The TAL was much better on Jupiter (more contrast) but the Vixen was definitely better with the galaxies and globular clusters. On double stars both scopes where equal. What we also liked more about the Cassegrain system is that you can sit down while observing, you are always observing from almost the same position. With the Newton the height varies a lot and also the position of the eyepiece is variable.

We also compared the 10-inch Skywatcher with the two 8-inch systems. With the globular clusters and galaxies, the 10-inch wins! Aperture rules, as always, especially with the globulars. They where all resolved (partially) in the 10 inch Skywatcher, while both 8-inch telescopes showed only very faint patches of light with only a few stars resolved against the background glow. The trick is to find the balance between aperture, quality of the scope and the amount of money you can spend for a telescope. But one thing is sure: aperture rules, even in a suburban, heavily light-polluted backyard.

If you are interested in making your own astro-images, be sure to visit Robert Gendlers astro imaging pages. There you will find hundreds op beautiful astro pics, but also various articles with tips and tricks for the astro photographer.

If you are intersted in some other links to astro images, just have a look in my links pages under astro pictures. Should you want to add some interesting links, please feel free to do so. Just click on “Add your link” and you will be guided through the process.